Google

Why Google Thinks SPYW is a Good Idea and You Probably Don’t

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In a recent statement Larry Page said if you don’t get SPYW then maybe you shouldn’t work at Google. To understand why he thinks this is such a good idea–and why the rest of the world thinks it isn’t–we need to revisit the concept of filter bubbles and why they are such a bad idea.

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Why Google Wants to be in Your Wallet and Drive Your Car

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When I talk with people who aren’t involved with internet marketing about Google, I’m surprised by the amount of trust they put in Google and how they feel Google is making the world a better place … for truly altruistic reasons. It’s not until I point out how Google will gladly provide all the services [...]

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Will Google Author Accounts Become the Next Spam Tactic

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In the last few weeks, Google has announced its support of Google Author Profiles. While the rollout and acceptance has been limited, for those of us who have been around the block a few times, it’s easy to see that this will become the next big spam tactic like link exchanges, article directories, guest posts, [...]

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Facebook and Google+ Competing For Your Attention

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With the launch of Google+, the inevitable tech fan boys preaching the downfall of Facebook–because a new shiny cat toy caught their attention–was laughably predictable. As SEO’s, internet marketers, and social media consultants, we have to be involved in these games, or we risk losing our competitive edge. However, what we really need to understand [...]

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Google Throws Publishers Under Bus with Prerendering of Pages

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Google recently announced they will start to pre-render pages in Chrome to “improve the user experience.” IMHO this represents nothing more than the latest effort by Google to throw publishers under the bus to gain market share for one of their products and ultimately give them more data about their users to better target their [...]

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How to Get Reviews For Your Website

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Reviews are an extremely powerful asset for many websites. They can provide a continual stream of fresh, new, and unique content that is good for the users, which is ultimately what everyone wants. However, there are some upsides and downsides to reviews, and there is the big hurdle of figuring out how to get reviews [...]

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Filter Bubble Book Review

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The Filter Bubble is a new book by Eli Pariser that addresses the subject of how personalization of sites like Google and Facebook are sheltering us from information that doesn’t agree with our world view. Instead of the Internet being a window to new experiences and viewpoints, it becomes a mirror, reflecting back only what [...]

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Andrew Wise of SEOLinkWheelers Talks About the Panda Update

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The following is a sponsored post. For today’s post we’re going to be talking with Andrew Wise of SEOLinkWheelers.com you may remember I spoke with Andrew back in January (see Interview with Andrew Wise of SEOLinkWheelers.com). Today we’re going to be talking about the Panda update, can you tell us what you think where the [...]

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Why Google’s +1 Needs an On Page Component

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Last week Google announced a new addition to the search engine results page: the +1 button. While there was a huge amount of press surrounding the launch, after playing with it for a few days, I don’t think it’s going to work unless it has an on page component … soon.

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Traffic Down From Panda Update – Diversify Your Traffic Sources

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Recently Google had an update and some webmasters were significantly impacted. Google has had many big updates and will have many more. If your rankings are soured by an update you may become angry at Google. IMHO that is just not the smartest or most profitable approach.

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Are Search Engines Using ClickStream Data

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Recently there was a big kerfuffle over Bing copying Google results, Bing denying it, the Google FUD machine in full force, and some nice conspiracy theory about who is pulling the strings and why. While this makes for some exciting drama and fun twitter banter, there is some actionable information for SEO’s: paying attention to [...]

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Serendipity … It’s What’s Missing From Personalized Search

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I’ve spoken in the past about my concerns with Google’s personalized search. Last week I came across an article in Mashable that summed up my problem: It’s the lack of serendipity.

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Google the Answer Engine

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One of the topics that emerged from Pubcon was “Should SEO’s Focus on Where Google is Heading”, and I’m going to agree with Aaron that focusing on short term algorithmic holes isn’t a smart thing for most people (churn and burn folks–you keep on keeping on). I agree that most publishers should focus on where Google is [...]

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The Google Holiday Update Conspiracy Theory

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For the past few years, right before the prime 4th quarter holiday selling period, Google pushes out an update that causes an upheaval in the organic SERP’s. This has lead to talk of there being a Google Holiday Update Conspiracy, with the goals of making SEO look bad to drive up Adwords spending. Is there [...]

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I Wish We Had Google Understand Not Google Instant Search

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Earlier this week Google launched the latest iteration of the SERP’s, Google Instant. While I, like everyone else, had fun playing and finding some of the holes in it, it’s really not a product that I think will succeed. To Google’s credit, I can’t ever say that I’ve heard people complain that Google takes too long to [...]

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Personalized Google News – Will That be on the Test

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For a moment, I’d like you to think back to high school. Remember how there was always that one kid who would raise their hand and ask the question “Will that be on the test?” Now, thanks to Personalized Google News, we have the answer.

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Case Study: I Listened to Google and I Failed

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This is a post of why natural link building seems to be no longer working, despite Google not admitting that. I don’t know how many times Google have said: “Produce great content and if users find it useful, they’ll recommend and link to you.” But Google, how do I get these people to even come [...]

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Google is Scarier than Facebook on Privacy

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In the past few weeks Facebook has been publicly criticized over privacy policies; however, when Google invades people’s privacy, the offenses don’t receive the same level of scrutiny or public outrage.

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Why Everyone Should Turn Off Blog Comments

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In the past I’ve spoken about why I turned off blog comments, but it was mostly from a time/labor perspective. Now I have another reason, one that affects everyone from an SEO Perspective. In some cases. leaving comments on will negatively impact your rankings and traffic.

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How Google is Reverse Engineering Page Dates

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In recent weeks I’ve noticed a disturbing new trend in Google SERP’s: Google has become much more aggressive at trying to reverse engineer the publication date of a post/page.

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